Poland mourns president's death in crash - CNN.com Poland mourns president's death in crash STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: Thousands in Warsaw mourn death of President Lech Kaczynski Plane was approaching the airport at Smolensk, Russia, believed to have hit trees 97 people confirmed killed according to Russian emergency minister "Entire top military brass" appears to have died in crash, says one political observer (CNN) -- Thousands gathered outside Warsaw's presidential palace on Saturday evening to lay flowers and light candles in honor of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who was killed in a plane crash in western Russia earlier in the day. Kaczynski's wife and several top military officials were also killed in the crash. "There is going to be a huge gap in public life in Poland," said resident Magdalena Hendrysiak. "The most important people are dead." Russian officials said that 97 people were killed when the plane carrying Kaczynski crashed as it was trying to land at an airport near the city of Smolensk.

Parliament Speaker Bronislaw Komorowski took over as acting president and declared it "a time for national mourning." Kaczynski, 60, had been traveling with a Polish delegation to Russia for the 70th anniversary of the Russian massacre of Polish prisoners of war in the village of Katyn. Some 20,000 Poles, including soldiers and civilians, were executed there during World War II. The event was to be a milestone in the easing of relations between Russia and Poland, strained for decades over Poland's close relationship to the United States and because of lingering ill will over Russia's campaign against the Poles in the 1940s. "A shared tragedy of this sort could give a boost to further improvement in Polish-Russian relations, which ... were on the mend," said Tomas Valasek of the Center for European Reform. "This tragedy might accelerate that trend." Video: Saakashvilli calls Kaczynski a 'friend' Video: Polish president dead in plane crash Video: Putin: Crash 'horrible tragedy' Video: Polish crash investigation Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin appeared together in Smolensk on Saturday night.

Russia has declared Monday a day of mourning, though Russian television portrayed Kaczynski in a largely negative light on Saturday, highlighting the Polish president's criticisms of Moscow. The Polish military plane carrying Kaczynski originated in Warsaw, the Polish Defense Ministry said. It was just a few miles east of Katyn when it crashed around 10:50 a.m. (2:50 a.m. ET) on the outskirts of the town of Pechorsk, close to Smolensk, the Investigation Committee of the Russian prosecutor's office said. Russian officials on Saturday emphasized that there is no evidence it was responsible for the crash. The Investigation Committee said the plane, a Tupolev-154, was trying to land in heavy fog. A Russian military official said that air traffic control in Smolensk had tried to divert the plane to another airport because of inclement weather. CNN's Richard Quest reports on the Tupolev-154 "The air traffic control officer gave several orders to divert but the plane continued with its descent," said Alexander Aleshin, a top Russian Air Force official.

"Unfortunately, this ended in tragedy." Russian President Dmitry Medvedev appointed Putin to head an inquiry commission and sent Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu to the scene of the crash, the Kremlin said. "We had a lot in common as presidents and as ordinary people and I can assure you that the death of Lech Kaczynski will be investigated and that we will uncover all the circumstances of this plane crash," Medvedev said Saturday. Other Polish officials killed in the crash include Aleksander Szczyglo, the head of the National Security Office; Jerzy Szmajdzinski, the deputy parliament speaker; Andrzej Kremer, the deputy foreign minister; and Gen. Franciszek Gagor, the army chief of staff, according to Kaczynski's Law and Justice Party. The party also said that Slawomir Skrzypek, head of the National Bank of Poland, was killed. "The entire top military brass, including the chief of defense and all the services, were on the plane," Valasek said.

"You're looking at a situation, in effect, of the decapitation of the military services." Putin spoke Saturday at the crash site, where charred pieces of the airplane were strewn through a wooded area. Some pieces, including one of the wheel wells, were upside down. "As our first priority, we must establish the causes of this tragedy," he said. "As a second priority, we must do everything in our power to assist the families and relatives of the deceased." The plane carrying Kaczynski was refurbished and repaired last year, according to Alexei Gusev, general director of Aviakor Factory, the company that performed the service. "Speaking openly, we believe that this tragedy could not have been caused by equipment failure," he said. Kaczynski had been president since December 2005, after he defeated rival Tusk in the second round of voting. There is going to be a huge gap in public life in Poland. The most important people are dead. --Magdalena Hendrysiak, Warsaw resident The two men did not have a good relationship.

In parliamentary elections in 2007, Tusk's Civic Platform beat the Law and Justice Party of Kaczynski's twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who was prime minister at the time. Tusk put political differences aside as he spoke to the nation Saturday. "I wanted, in the name of all the Polish people, to pass words of condolences to the familiy of the Polish president, to his daughter, to his mother, to his brother, and to all the families of all the victims," he said. Tusk and Polish Cabinet ministers held a special meeting Saturday morning to discuss the situation. Elections must now be held within 60 days, said Dariusz Rosati, Poland's former foreign minister. Valasek pointed out, however, that the Polish president is the head of state, not head of government -- meaning essential services will continue. "The role of the Polish president is not quite ceremonial ... he has some very real powers, but at the end of the day, the day-to-day running of the government is in the hands of the prime minister and the (cabinet) ministers," Valasek said.

"Continuity is assured in ways that would not necessarily be assured in the case of the death of the U.S. president." World leaders pay tribute to Kaczynski Meanwhile Saturday, condolences poured in from around the world, including from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles. "President Kaczynski was a distinguished statesman who played a key role in the Solidarity movement, and he was widely admired in the United States as a leader dedicated to advancing freedom and human dignity," U.S. President Barack Obama said in a statement. CNN's Melissa Gray in London, England, and Max Tkachenko in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, contributed to this report. Share this on: 'Key witness' in Polish presidential plane crash dies, suicide suspected — RT News Tags Health , Scandal , Europe , Polish President's plane crash , Planes , Air Force ­The body of Remigiusz Muś, a 42-year-old aviation engineer, was found by his wife in the cellar of their house in the suburbs of the Polish capital at around 11:30pm local time on Saturday.

She called an ambulance and attempted to resuscitate her husband, but medics pronounced him dead as soon as they arrived. An autopsy is set for Monday, October 29. As news of Muś’ death hit headlines, the head of the Polish parliamentary commission looking into the crash, Antoni Macierewicz, said that Muś was one of two key witnesses in the case. With Muś dead, key witness Artur Wosztyl should be put in protective custody, Macierewicz said. Dariusz Slepokura, a spokesperson for the Warsaw district prosecutor's office, said on Monday that Muś likely committed suicide. Muś’ suicide has become the second incident of its kind connected to the investigation of the April 10, 2010, plane crash in Smolensk that killed the Polish president and 95 other people aboard. In January 2012, a Polish prosecutor involved in the investigation shot himself for no apparent reason during a media briefing. Prosecutor Mikolaj Przybyl told reporters he needed a break, and ordered them to leave the briefing room. Immediately after they left, Przybyl shot himself.

Doctors managed to save his life, as his brain was not damaged by the self-inflicted wound. Muś arrived to Smolensk on a Polish Yak-40 airliner carrying the Polish press pool one hour before the President’s plane crashed. Shortly after the incident, Muś retired from aviation. The catastrophe devastated Polish leadership, as most of the country’s top political, military, financial and religious leaders were on the same flight to Smolensk to commemorate Polish officers imprisoned and brought to the USSR in 1939. The prisoners were later executed in the forests of Katyn, around 14 kilometers west of the city of Smolensk. During the investigation, Muś testified that he witnessed the ground control in Smolensk communicating with the pilots of the president’s airplane. Muś claimed that while he rested in the cabin of the plane, he overheard a Russian air traffic control officer giving the president’s plane permission to descend to a ‘landing decision’ height of 50 meters. Muś said that earlier, the aircraft in which he was flying was given the same permission to descend to 50 meters, despite the dense fog covering the Smolensk region that day.

Muś’ testimony contradicted the official version, which said that the traffic controller only allowed the airplane to descend to 100 meters. The official statement prompted a wide-ranging international investigation by the Interstate Aviation Committee, which included experts from Russia, Poland and the US According to the official narrative delivered by the Committee, the crash of Poland’s presidential plane was largely caused by human error and bad weather. The pilots were warned of heavy fog and low visibility at Smolensk military airfield, and were asked to reroute to a different airport. The pilot nevertheless made the decision to land. The investigation by the Interstate Aviation Committee revealed that in addition to the severe weather conditions, the pilots had been subjected to pressure by some of the high-ranking passengers onboard. Transcripts from the plane’s black box revealed the pilots were forced to land as soon as possible. The recording also showed that one oficial entered the cockpit many times throughout the flight, and that the Chief of the Air Force of Poland was present in the cockpit at the time of the crash.

Polish President's Plane Crash Was Assassination, His Brother Says - ABC News ABC News Polish President's Plane Crash Was Assassination, His Brother Says March 29, 2012 via WORLD NEWS MOSCOW - The twin brother of former Polish President Lech Kaczynski believes the 2010 plane crash that killed his brother was an assassination and he wants the European Union to investigate. Jaroslaw Kaczynski said that explosions might have brought down the plane, which crashed while trying to land amid heavy fog near Smolensk, Russia, April 10, 2010. The crash killed the president, his wife and nearly 100 other top Polish officials who were en route to a ceremony in Russia commemorating the massacre of an estimated 22,000 Polish military officers in 1940 by the Soviet secret police. "If there were explosions [on board], if this catastrophe looks increasingly like an assassination, then this means there is a new quality to international politics," Kaczynski said Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski is the leader of Poland's nationalist Justice and Law Party, which has opposed the government's efforts to improve relations with Russia. His comments would appear to point a finger at Russia, which many Poles view suspiciously ever since the days when the Soviet Union controlled Poland. President Kaczynski had been a vocal critic of Moscow, which some people have suggested would be a possible motive for any assassination. Conspiracy theories have echoed since the deadly crash took place, and this is not the first time the late president's brother has expressed concerns about the circumstances of the accident aboard the Russian-built plane. But his comments this week are the most direct accusation that foul play was the deliberate cause of his brother's death. Polish and Russian investigations into the crash concluded that fog and pilot error were to blame for the crash, as well as pressure in the cockpit, which some believe suggests the pilot was urged to land despite poor weather conditions. Russian air traffic controllers had warned the pilot not to land . The Polish report blamed the Russian controllers for confusing instructions, although Russia has denied the allegation. Jaroslaw Kaczynski lamented that the Polish public is beginning to forget about his brother's death.

President Kaczynski's daughter, Marta, also appealed for an international investigation. Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk, however, has rejected the assassination theories. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Did Putin Blow Up the Whole Polish Government in 2010? A Second Look. - The Daily Beast Killer Ops Did Putin Blow Up the Whole Polish Government in 2010? A Second Look. A plane crash at Smolensk in Russia four years ago wiped out the Warsaw leadership. It used to be seen as an accident. Now, after Putin’s games in Ukraine, people aren’t so sure. Will Cathcart 04.11.14 9:45 AM ET Four years ago this week, Polish President Lech Kaczynski was killed in a plane crash near the Katyn Forest in Russia where he was flying to honor the 22,000 Polish officers, lawyers, priests and professors slaughtered there by the Soviets 70 years before. Ninety-five other military, political and public figures including his wife died on that plane.

One of the more heartbreaking details to emerge was that First Lady Maria Kaczynska’s body could be identified only by her nail polish and the inscription inside her wedding ring. Less than two years before the crash the late president had given a speech warning that if Russian aggression was not stopped in Georgia, which Russia had invaded, it would extend to Ukraine, the Baltics, and possibly Poland as well. “We are here to take up the fight,” he said. And many Poles still believe that their president died in the cause of that effort. Physicist Kazimierz Nowaczyk is one of them. On April 10, 2010 at 10:41 a.m. Polish Air Force Flight 101 crashed several hundred meters short of the Smolensk runway in dense fog. Within hours the Russian government issued a statement citing the incident on pilot error. Russia’s final report on the incident blamed the late President Kaczyński and his “inebriated” air force commander-in-chief for using “psychological pressure” to force the Polish pilots to land in a low-visibility environment.

The plane’s black boxes, laptops, sensitive documents, mobile phones, address books, telephone numbers, correspondence, and the top-secret military, NATO and diplomatic codes on board were salvaged from crash site immediately by the Kremlin’s operatives in what was a “coup for Russia’s intelligence service” according to retired CIA analyst Gene Poteat. What Nowaczyk calls “years worth of work for security services” was completed in a single day by Russia’s OMON Special Purpose Police, which were immediately deployed to the site. The airplane was a 20-year-old Russian Tupolev-154M that had been refurbished and upgraded in Russia four months before, a detail that has become the subject of considerable speculation on the many forums and groups dedicated to investigating the conspiracy theory surrounding the flight. According to Poteat, “Forty minutes before the crash, a Russian YAK-40 airplane with 40 people on board landed safely. Twenty minutes before the crash a Russian AWAC airplane did a touch-and-go at the airport then flew on to Moscow.” In an interview with The Daily Beast, Nowaczyk describes the findings of an independent Polish parliamentary committee investigating the crash of which he is a member.

The group consists of scientists from various backgrounds and relies only on “scientific tools” in its investigation, he said. But the committee was formed by Polish parliamentary factions, such as that of the late president’s brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who have not found the official Polish-Russian report on the incident satisfactory. “From our point of view this report was full of mistakes,” Nowaczyk explains, citing various inconsistencies and contradictions in the official narrative. A key issue raised by Nowaczyk’s committee and the many online forums dedicated to the crash is that the amount of debris found at the site—an estimated 60,000 aircraft fragments—would be impossible in the case of a simple plane crash. He cites the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and the 1996 TWA 800 flight out of New York, both of which exploded in the air but had only 11,000 aircraft fragments and 3,168 fragments respectively. Both planes were reconstructed to 95 percent completion. Nowaczyk believes that an explosion caused the fragmentation of the Polish president’s plane.

In the official report the plane’s black boxes indicate that the aircraft’s electricity was cut two to three seconds before the crash, which Nowaczyk believes also was caused by that explosion. Like many of those pursuing these theories Nowaczyk personally knew four people who died in the crash, including the late president. The Polish physicist’s voice grows faint, almost pleading, “I simply want to know the truth.” Earlier this week—on April 8, 2014—Polskie Radio reported that the Polish District Military Prosecutor in Warsaw, Colonel Ireneusz Szelag, presented 1,300 pages of documentation, in advance of the four-year anniversary, ruling out “any possibility that an explosion occurred aboard the Polish presidential plane that crashed in Smolensk on 10 April 2010.” The prosecutor stated, “After analysing 700 samples, experts found no traces that an explosion had taken place aboard the Tu-154 plane… The experts had unimpeded access to the site of the catastrophe, and to the place where the wreck of the plane is being stored.” The prosecutor stated that the investigation would be closed next year, even if the aircraft’s wreckage is not returned to Poland.

That is not likely to calm the roiling tide of speculation about a conspiracy, especially in light of Putin’s recent actions in Ukraine. Already last year nearly one third of the Polish population believed there was a possibility that their president had been assassinated. The number is unusually high for a conspiracy theory, suggesting just how fearful Poland is about Russian intentions. But it is increasingly hard to separate the forensic aspects of the case from the intense political maneuvering around it in Poland. The incident has been used to fuel anti-Russian sentiment among far-right groups, to demonstrate anti-Russian credentials and to further political careers. The general public has every reason to be skeptical. Now at a time when anti-Russian sentiment is already running high, this theory could further embitter the Polish people if it continues to gather momentum and recognition. For the majority of the country and the mainstream media, supposition that the Smolensk crash was not an accident remains a fringe theory fraught with political implications. Those who propagate it are considered paranoids or activists with an axe to grind. But Putin’s performance over the last eight weeks has given the world good cause to revisit conspiracy theories, including some that only two months ago would have seemed ludicrous and absurd.

READ THIS LIST Poland & Russia commemorate plane crash victims near Smolensk — RT News Tags Russia , Accident , Europe , Polish President's plane crash It has been six months since the tragedy took the lives of 96 people near the city of Smolensk. Russia was quick to offer its sympathies, declaring the day immediately after the tragedy a day of mourning. Now families of the dead have gone on a pilgrimage to the site where the presidential Tupolev-154 crashed on April 10, 2010. Two separate ceremonies have taken place to pay tribute to the victims, who ironically were coming to Russia to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre, in which nearly 22,000 Polish army officers were executed without trial by Soviet secret police in 1940. Polish and Russian delegations visited the place where the debris of the plane is being held, and then moved to the site of the actual crash, where a plaque has been erected. Orthodox and Catholic prayers have taken place there, as well as the laying of flowers. Following the services, the delegations moved to the memorial site of the Katyn Massacre.

Today’s delegations were headed by the countries’ first ladies, Svetlana Medvedeva and Anna Komorowska. “All of Russia shared the grief and sorrow of Poland,” Ms. Medvedeva said. “During those hard times we were together with you. We were praying for those who died in the plane crash.” Russia’s First Lady also announced that President Dmitry Medvedev was planning to visit Poland in December, calling the future event “crucial.” About two hundred relatives of the victims have taken part in the ceremonies. They came on Sunday by two special flights from Warsaw to Vitebsk, Belarus, from where they were transferred to Smolensk by motor vehicle. “This commemoration could only have been requested by the family of the victims,” said Ms. Komorowski. “And I want to thank you for the honor of taking part in this pilgrimage.” The brother of the late-President Lech Kaczynski, and the leader of the country’s main opposition party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, did not take part in today’s ceremonies. He has been critical of the handling of the crash investigation by both the Polish and Russian governments.

Theories as to what caused the crash include the way in which the plane was prepared for the flight, refusal of the crew members to follow advice given to them by air traffic controllers and the ways in which the crew were prepared for the flight. The air traffic controllers warned the flight crew not to land due to poor visibility and informed them of alternative landing sites. It has been confirmed that the plane was in good working order, so equipment failure was ruled out, as was the possibility of a terrorist attack, and explosion or fire taking place. What has also been confirmed from both sides is that non-crew members were in the cockpit at the time the crew were attempting to land. The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) and Polish experts have been conducting a joint investigation of the tragedy. The Russian and Polish sides also launched separate investigations. On October 13, Polish archaeologists are due to search the site for any remaining plane debris and victim remains. President of Poland killed in plane crash « Hot Air President of Poland killed in plane crash posted at 7:51 am on April 10, 2010 by Ed Morrissey Share on Facebook 1 1 SHARES The West has lost a good friend this morning.

Poland’s conservative President Lech Kaczynski, who stood in defense of free nations in the region, was killed along with 88 others when his plane attempted to land in heavy fog in Smolensk. He had flown to Russia to jointly commemorate the massacre of 20,000 Polish Army officers in Katyn forest with the current Russian government: Polish President Lech Kaczynski was killed early Saturday when the plane he was traveling in with his wife and a Polish delegation crashed at a western Russian airport, according to the Russian regional governor. “There are no survivors,” said Smolensk Governor Sergey Antufyev, according to his spokesman. … The plane was approaching the airport at Smolensk, Russia — just a few miles east of Katyn — and probably hit some trees at the end of the runway, Paszkowski said. The Investigation Committee of the Russian prosecutor’s office said the plane, a Tupolev-154, was trying to land in heavy fog. Kaczynski was no stranger to controversy. Poles elected him in 2005 after dissatisfaction with an earlier slide towards European collectivism.

Kaczynski became a Euro-skeptic, preferring to keep Poland at arms length from the EU. When Georgia and Ukraine went through tribulations with Russia, Kaczynski was a dependable voice for self-determination in eastern Europe. Kaczynski wasn’t the only official from Poland on the flight. He was traveling with a large delegation of officials, all of whom died along with him: Tusk and Polish cabinet ministers were holding a special meeting Saturday morning to discuss the situation, said a spokeswoman for the Polish Parliament, who declined to be named because she was not authorized to speak publicly. Under Polish law, if something happens to the president, leadership transfers to the Parliament speaker, who is Bronislaw Komorowski, the spokeswoman said. She said more information would come out after the meeting. “There is going to be a huge gap in public life in Poland,” said resident Magdalena Hendrysiak. “The most important people are dead.” Our prayers and thoughts go out to the Poles and the families of those killed.

Update: Legal Insurrection has more, including reaction from Lech Walesa and the bitter irony of losing these national leaders in connection with the commemoration of the Katyn massacre, the site of which is nearby to the military airport where the crash happened. “It is a damned place,” said another of Kaczynski’s predecessors in reaction to the crash. Did Putin Kill a Polish President? Did Putin Kill a Polish President? Will Cathcart Did Putin Kill a Polish President? More Four years ago this week, Polish President Lech Kaczynski was killed in a plane crash near the Katyn Forest in Russia where he was flying to honor the 22,000 Polish officers, lawyers, priests and professors slaughtered there by the Soviets 70 years before. Ninety-five other military, political and public figures including his wife died on that plane. One of the more heartbreaking details to emerge was that First Lady Maria Kaczynska’s body could be identified only by her nail polish and the inscription inside her wedding ring.

Less than two years before the crash the late president had given a speech warning that if Russian aggression was not stopped in Georgia, which Russia had invaded, it would extend to Ukraine, the Baltics, and possibly Poland as well. “We are here to take up the fight,” he said. And many Poles still believe that their president died in the cause of that effort. Physicist Kazimierz Nowaczyk is one of them. READ MORE Inside Putin's Recession On April 10, 2010 at 10:41 a.m. Polish Air Force Flight 101 crashed several hundred meters short of the Smolensk runway in dense fog. Within hours the Russian government issued a statement citing the incident on pilot error. Russia’s final report on the incident blamed the late President Kaczyński and his “inebriated” air force commander-in-chief for using “psychological pressure” to force the Polish pilots to land in a low-visibility environment.

The plane’s black boxes, laptops, sensitive documents, mobile phones, address books, telephone numbers, correspondence, and the top-secret military, NATO and diplomatic codes on board were salvaged from crash site immediately by the Kremlin’s operatives in what was a “coup for Russia’s intelligence service” according to retired CIA analyst Gene Poteat. What Nowaczyk calls “years worth of work for security services” was completed in a single day by Russia’s OMON Special Purpose Police, which were immediately deployed to the site. READ MORE Ayaan vs. Campus Thought Police The airplane was a 20-year-old Russian Tupolev-154M that had been refurbished and upgraded in Russia four months before, a detail that has become the subject of considerable speculation on the many forums and groups dedicated to investigating the conspiracy theory surrounding the flight. According to Poteat, “Forty minutes before the crash, a Russian YAK-40 airplane with 40 people on board landed safely. Twenty minutes before the crash a Russian AWAC airplane did a touch-and-go at the airport then flew on to Moscow.” READ MORE Can Pistorius Dodge the Details?

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Nowaczyk describes the findings of an independent Polish parliamentary committee investigating the crash of which he is a member. The group consists of scientists from various backgrounds and relies only on “scientific tools” in its investigation, he said. But the committee was formed by Polish parliamentary factions, such as that of the late president’s brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who have not found the official Polish-Russian report on the incident satisfactory. “From our point of view this report was full of mistakes,” Nowaczyk explains, citing various inconsistencies and contradictions in the official narrative. A key issue raised by Nowaczyk’s committee and the many online forums dedicated to the crash is that the amount of debris found at the site—an estimated 60,000 aircraft fragments—would be impossible in the case of a simple plane crash. He cites the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and the 1996 TWA 800 flight out of New York, both of which exploded in the air but had only 11,000 aircraft fragments and 3,168 fragments respectively. Both planes were reconstructed to 95 percent completion.

Nowaczyk believes that an explosion caused the fragmentation of the Polish president’s plane. In the official report the plane’s black boxes indicate that the aircraft’s electricity was cut two to three seconds before the crash, which Nowaczyk believes also was caused by that explosion. READ MORE Shooting Down North Korea Missiles Like many of those pursuing these theories Nowaczyk personally knew four people who died in the crash, including the late president.

The Polish physicist’s voice grows faint, almost pleading, “I simply want to know the truth.” Earlier this week—on April 8, 2014—Polskie Radio reported that the Polish District Military Prosecutor in Warsaw, Colonel Ireneusz Szelag, presented 1,300 pages of documentation, in advance of the four-year anniversary, ruling out “any possibility that an explosion occurred aboard the Polish presidential plane that crashed in Smolensk on 10 April 2010.” The prosecutor stated, “After analysing 700 samples, experts found no traces that an explosion had taken place aboard the Tu-154 plane… The experts had unimpeded access to the site of the catastrophe, and to the place where the wreck of the plane is being stored.” The prosecutor stated that the investigation would be closed next year, even if the aircraft’s wreckage is not returned to Poland. Polish President, 96 Others Killed in Plane Crash Polish President, 96 Others Killed in Plane Crash April 09, 2010 8:00 PM Share Print Russian officials say Polish President Lech Kaczynski has died in a plane crash in western Russia.

Russian news agencies say that 60-year-old President Lech Kaczynski was killed when the Tupolev TU 154 went down as it approached an airport near Smolensk. Witnesses say the plane crashed into trees near the airport and then, broke into several pieces before catching on fire. The exact cause of the crash is under investigation. Among the passengers confirmed on the flight were Mr. Kaczynski's wife Maria, Poland's army chief, deputy foreign minister, central bank governor and scores of Polish legislators. The Smolensk regional governor said there were no survivors. The Polish delegation was headed to the western Russian town of Smolensk to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the World War II-era killing of 22,000 Polish officers by Soviet security forces at the town of Katyn near Smolensk. Mr. Kaczynski was elected president of Poland in 2005. A year later, he spoke of his plans to make Poland an integral part of the European Union. He said we must build a properly functioning country, without corruption. A country helpful toward its citizens, to build an independent Poland within the European Union.

Residents in Poland expressed shock at the news of Mr. Kaczynski's death. Hundreds of people gathered outside the presidential palace in Warsaw to pay tribute to the president. Adrianna Parowska says she, like the others who gathered at the presidential palace, is in shock. We are here to be together, she says, to console each other. It's a great shock because the elite of our nation went there to remember the dead from 70 years ago and right now Poland is really in trouble. The speaker of the lower chamber of parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski, is expected to take Mr. Kaczynski's duties. BBC News - Polish President Lech Kaczynski dies in plane crash Polish President Lech Kaczynski dies in plane crash Footage from the scene shows firefighters at work amid the wreckage President Lech Kaczynski and scores of other senior Polish figures have been killed in a plane crash in Russia. Polish and Russian officials said no-one survived after the plane apparently hit trees as it approached Smolensk airport in thick fog. Russian media reports said the pilots ignored advice from air traffic control to divert to another airport.

Poland's army chief, central bank governor, MPs and leading historians were among more than 80 passengers. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the crash was the most tragic event of the country's post-World War II history. The Polish delegation was flying in from Warsaw to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre of thousands of Poles by Soviet forces during WWII. The BBC's Adam Easton, in Warsaw, says the crash is a catastrophe for the Polish people. He says Prime Minister Tusk was reportedly in tears when he was told. After an emergency meeting of ministers, Mr Tusk, who runs the day-to-day business of government, said a week of national mourning had been declared with two minutes of silence on Sunday at midday. Mr Tusk added: "The Polish state must function and will function". Thousands have gathered outside the presidential palace in Warsaw A government spokesman said that according to the constitution there would be an early presidential election, and the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski, would be acting president. In Warsaw, people gathered outside the presidential palace to lay flowers and light candles. "I'm all broken up...

it cannot be expressed in words," Ewa Robaczewska told Reuters news agency. Pilot error? The Russian emergencies ministry told Itar-Tass news agency the plane crashed at 1056 Moscow time (0656 GMT) as it was coming in to land. Smolensk regional governor Sergei Antufiev told Russian TV that no-one had survived. Adam Easton, BBC News, Warsaw Thousands of people have gathered outside the presidential palace to pay their respects. There has been a spontaneous outpouring of grief, no matter what people thought of Lech Kaczynski. He was a divisive figure in Polish society, especially among younger Poles. People are just stunned, visibly moved and in tears, whether they agreed with the president's political views or not. The largest church bell in Poland, at Krakow Cathedral, has been rung. It never tolls generally, only for very, very solemn occasions. The last time it did so was for the death of the Polish pope, John Paul II, five years ago. "According to preliminary reports, it got caught up in the tops of trees, fell to the ground and broke up into pieces," he said.

"There are no survivors in that crash." Polish TV worker Slawomir Wisniewski said he had seen the crash from his hotel near the airport. "I saw through the fog, the aeroplane flying very low with the left wing pointing to the ground," he said. "I heard something being broken and then that thudding sound. Two flashes of fire next to each other." Russian media carried claims that the plane's crew were at fault for the crash. "Flight controllers... suggested that the plane be forwarded to Minsk but as far as we know the crew took an independent decision to land the plane in Smolensk," Smolensk regional government spokesman Andrei Yevseyenkov told Russian TV. Russian officials said 97 people were killed in the crash, including eight crew. Polish officials said that 89 people had been scheduled to fly in the delegation to the Katyn commemoration, but one person missed the flight. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the crash site, after saying he would personally oversee the investigation into the crash. "Everything must be done to establish the reasons for this tragedy in the shortest possible time," he said.

He was to meet his Polish counterpart, Mr Tusk, in Smolensk. Russian officials said all the bodies had been recovered from the scene and were being taken to Moscow for identification. Russia's Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu said both of the plane's flight information recorders had been found and were being examined. Controversial figure The president was flying in a Tupolev 154, a Soviet-designed plane that was more than 20 years old. SENIOR FIGURES KILLED Focus on ageing plane Our correspondent says there had been calls for Polish leaders to upgrade their planes. Mr Kaczynski himself had suffered scares while using the plane in late 2008, when problems with the aircraft's steering mechanism delayed his departure from Mongolia. "Any flight brings with it a certain risk, but a very serious risk attaches to the responsibilities of a president, because it is necessary to fly constantly," he was quoted as saying at the time. But the head of Russia's Aviakor aviation maintenance company told Russian TV the plane was airworthy, after his plant fully overhauled it in December. As well as the president and his wife, Maria, a number of senior officials were on the passenger list.

They included the army chief of staff Gen Franciszek Gagor, central bank governor Slawomir Skrzypek and deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer. World leaders including Mr Putin, US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered their condolences to Poland. Mr Kaczynski's twin brother, Jaroslaw, a former prime minister and now head of the main opposition party, was said to be "devastated", an aide told AFP news agency. Lech Kaczynski, who had fewer powers than the prime minister but had a significant say in foreign policy, was a controversial figure in Polish politics. He had advocated a right-wing Catholic agenda, opposed rapid free-market reforms and favoured retaining social welfare programmes. Bookmark with:

Question: In April, the President of Poland was killed in a plane crash near which Russian city?
Answer: SMOLENSK